Activists want to fly giant "Trump Baby" balloon over London to protest his UK visit
A crowdfunded campaign to fly a giant "Trump Baby" balloon over London during President Trump's visit next month has smashed its fundraising target, collecting more than $16,000 for the planned protest. But there's one problem: London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said no.
The diaper-clad "Trump Baby" stands nearly 20 feet high, sports the president's signature blond hair, and holds a cellphone in his very small hands.
"Donald Trump is a big, angry baby with a fragile ego and tiny hands," the group behind the effort wrote on their Crowdfunder page. "Moral outrage is water off a duck's back to Trump. But he really seems to hate it when people make fun of him."
"So when Trump visits the UK on Friday the 13th of July this year, we want to make sure he knows that all of Britain is looking down on him and laughing at him."
Khan, however, has not given the group permission to fly the balloon at London's Parliament Square because, the activists say, the "Trump Baby" does not qualify as a protest.
"They are insisting that the only form of protest that is legally allowable on their land is 'a gathering of people, with banners and placards,'" they write.
We have asked the Mayor to let us fly him over Parliament when Trump visits Britain on 13th July. But officials at City Hall have told us that #TrumpBaby is “not a protest”. Apparently, he is “art”.
— Leo Murray (@crisortunity) June 13, 2018
Here he is, all 6m of him:
2/n pic.twitter.com/0NIOUAMugk
More than 8,000 people have signed a petition to "Let Trump Baby Fly," calling for Khan to allow the balloon take to the skies.
The protesters say if they are unable to secure permission to fly the balloon from Parliament Square, outside the House of Commons, they "may need to be creative about finding a suitable alternative location." They also say they'll use the excess funds they raised to take the balloon on a "world tour."
Mr. Trump will travel to the United Kingdom on July 13 for a "working visit" with Prime Minister Theresa May. His visit has been anticipated for more than a year, after May was the first foreign leader to be hosted by the president at the White House after his inauguration.